William R. Buck
Leucodontopsis Renauld & Cardot
Plants medium-sized, bright- to yellow-green to bronze; creeping stolons turning away from substrate to form erect stems that are not or little branched. Stem leaves dense, not seriate, appressed when dry, spreading when moist, oblong-lanceolate to oblong-ovate, concave, plicate, broadly and gradually acuminate; base somewhat decurrent; margins revolute from just below apex to mid-alar region; costa single, ending about 2/3 the leaf length, often obscured, especially above, by plicae; laminal cells linear-flexuose, 1-papillose, firm-walled, ± porose; alar cells well differentiated in large, conspicuous areas, oblate, collenchymatous. Seta elongate, ca. 6 mm. Capsule well exserted, short-cylindric; annulus and operculum not seen. Calyptra not known.
Species probably 1 (1 in flora); North America, West Indies, Central America, South America, Africa, Asia.
Henicodium is distinguished by mostly unbranched, erect stems with revolute-margined leaves. The leaf cells are 1-papillose (individual leaves may sometimes be smooth) and the costa ends well below the leaf apex. Gemmae are regularly produced on older stems in large clusters in distal leaf axils.
SELECTED REFERENCES
Buck, W. R. 1989. Henicodium replaces Leucodontopsis (Pterobryaceae). Bryologist 92: 534. Buck, W. R. 1998. Pleurocarpous mosses of the West Indies. Mem. New York Bot. Gard. 82: 1--400.
